Aperture on the East by Meris Lee Read Free Book Online Page A

it more than she loves me.
She sleeps with it. She takes it everywhere. She used to get in
trouble for taking it to school, so she chose it over school, I
guess.”
    “ It’s an interesting
design. Where did you get it?”
    “ I got it from my first
love, Leo, Zoe’s father. He bought it with a ridiculous amount of
money from some musician. It’s antique, really. It was made in
1965, I was told. Leo got it for me when I got into a band
myself.”
    “ What did you
play?”
    “ Our music was not very
different from Zoe’s. We were a punk band. I had spiky hair.” Ana
and Mai both laughed. “Except,” said Ana, “Zoe’s all about blood
and death, and I was all about throwing over the
government.”
    “ So what happened to Zoe’s
father?” said Mai.
    Ana took a deep breath in and exhaled
slowly. It was still too agonizing to talk about Leo.
    “ He died when Zoe was
four,” said Ana.
    “ I’m sorry. We don’t have
to talk about it.”
    “ It’s okay. We were all
very young and foolish back then. People were all of a sudden free
to do a lot of things after the fall of Soviet Union in 1991. Leo
got into heroine, not that it was legal, but a lot of it was coming
in because no one was guarding the borders. Leo owned a tattoo
parlor, and all kinds of people were getting tattoos, not just
prisoners and gangsters. He did these snake tattoos for me.” Ana
showed Mai her forearms. “You can’t see very well because I put
concealer over them. Anyway, he made a lot of money, and we just
partied with heroine.”
    “ You did heroine, too?”
said Mai, her eyes enlarged.
    “ I tried it,” said Ana. “I
was stupid. Luckily I didn’t get hooked on it. Leo did, and he died
from an overdose. He was the life of the party one night, and the
next morning, he was gone.”
    “ I can’t believe it. I
have never known anyone who did drugs.”
    “ I hope you don’t hold
that against me.”
    “ It’s in the past. I only
look at the present. You seem like an upright person now,” said
Mai.
    Ana appreciated Mai’s kind words.
Finally, here was someone who validated Ana’s effort in rectifying
her life.
    “ Hi,” said Zoe when she
appeared with her band members in front of Ana.
    Ana stood up and gave Zoe a hug and a
kiss. Zoe did not resist it, but Ana could tell that Zoe did not
welcome it, either.
    “ Mai, this is Zoe,” said
Ana. “Zoe, this is Mai, the head chef at my restaurant.”
    Mai smiled at Zoe, who waved her hand
awkwardly at Mai.
    “ So, this is your band.”
Ana, with a smile, glanced at Zoe’s friends.
    Zoe quickly introduced everyone. The
other guitarist was Nelly, also from Russia. The bass guitarist was
Aiko from Japan. Tam took the keyboard; she was born and raised in
Nha Trang. Everyone participated in vocals.
    “ We’re still looking for
someone to play the drums,” said Nelly. “It’s hard being a metal
band without a drummer. Tam uses the synchronizer on her keyboard
to do percussions.”
    “ Which is quite a waste of
her talents,” said Aiko. “She’s been learning classical piano since
she was four, and she went to the Steinway piano competition last
year.”
    “ But I didn’t win,” said
Tam. “Anyway I like pop music better.”
    “ Your parents let you play
here in a nightclub?” said Mai. She was looking at Tam.
    “ I don’t need them to let
me,” said Tam.
    All right, it seemed that Zoe had
found a kindred spirit in Tam, thought Ana.
    The break was up, and the Cardinal’s
Choir returned to the stage, causing another wave of feverish
clapping and screaming from the audience before they all fell into
a frenzy when the band started to play “Bring Me to Life” by
Evanescence.
    “ Well, Ana,” said Mai.
“It’s been fun, but I have to go now. My husband will give me an
earful if I don’t get home soon.” She got up to leave.
    “ I’ll stay a little longer
to watch Zoe. This is a side of her I’ve never seen before.” Ana
felt a sense of pride, even though